In the Spotlight: AFSCME families have already taken cuts

AFSCME families have already taken cuts Our union, AFSCME, believes in a healthy middle class with wage earners who can support a family and build strong communities. But Gov. Quinn's conduct suggests he thinks Illinois should join the ranks of low-wage states.

Journal Star

Writer

Posted Dec. 1, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Dec 1, 2012 at 12:04 AM

Posted Dec. 1, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Dec 1, 2012 at 12:04 AM

PEORIA

Our union, AFSCME, believes in a healthy middle class with wage earners who can support a family and build strong communities. But Gov. Quinn's conduct suggests he thinks Illinois should join the ranks of low-wage states.

That's the message in Pat Quinn's action to terminate the union contract for 40,000 AFSCME members who serve their communities statewide, something no Illinois governor has ever done before. This drastic step reflects Gov. Quinn's zeal to weaken collective bargaining rights and drive down the wages of public employees.

In reality, state workers have gone above and beyond the call of duty to help address the state's budget problems, agreeing to unpaid furlough days, wage deferrals and health plan changes that have saved the state $400 million.

They are working harder than ever to maintain essential public services despite staff cuts that have left Illinois with the nation's smallest state workforce per capita.

And contrary to the misinformation from the Quinn administration reprinted in the Journal-Star's Nov. 21 editorial, their salaries are not out of line. All non-farm workers in Illinois, public and private, are the seventh-best paid of the 50 states. State employees actually lag behind, ranking ninth.

AFSCME members are child protection workers, correctional officers and police dispatchers. They are environmental specialists, forensic lab technicians, nurse aides who care for veterans and the disabled, and thousands more hard-working men and women who serve their communities every day. They are keenly aware of the state's fiscal problems. That's why they've already sacrificed, and why the union's current contract proposals are modest.

The governor's action to terminate the union contract of these employees should alarm every Illinoisan.

Instead of working constructively, he is provoking conflict and discord, threatening to disrupt the services AFSCME members provide. That risks the safety of employees as well as the wider public who depend on state workers to protect public safety, respond to emergencies and disasters, safeguard natural resources and do so much more, around the clock, 365 days a year.

We remain committed to the bargaining process, as we have been all year, working in good faith to reach a settlement.

But AFSCME and our members won't simply bow to Gov. Quinn's insistence on lowering the middle-class standard of living that state employees have worked to earn and on which their families and communities depend.

Henry Bayer is executive director of AFSCME Council 31, based in Chicago.